In-vehicle protection system using multiple processing units and/or using communication module to send positioning information

ABSTRACT

An in-vehicle protection system includes a signal input interface, a vehicle protection circuit, and a global navigation satellite system (GNSS) module. The signal input interface receives an indication signal indicative of a status of a vehicle. The vehicle protection circuit includes a first processing unit, a second processing unit, and a controller. The first and second processing units perform predetermined action in response to abnormality of a vehicle, and have different computing power. The controller outputs the indication signal to one of the first and second processing units according to an operational state of the in-vehicle protection system. The GNSS module obtains positioning information of the vehicle. After the second processing unit detects an abnormal status of the vehicle, the first processing unit sends at least one of the positioning information and vehicle alarm information indicative of the abnormal status through a communication network.

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION

This is a continuation-in-part of U.S. application Ser. No. 13/002,048,filed on Dec. 30, 2010 and incorporated herein by reference.

BACKGROUND

The disclosed embodiments of the present invention relate to anin-vehicle protection scheme, and more particularly, to an in-vehicleprotection system which uses multiple processing units for low powerconsumption and/or using a mobile phone module to send vehicle'spositioning information for improved anti-theft performance.

With advance of the semiconductor technology, the in-vehicle controlsystem becomes more powerful to support additional functions. Forexample, the in-vehicle control system may be designed to supportnavigation function by having a global navigation satellite system(GNSS) module incorporated therein. Besides, the vehicle may also havethe in-vehicle control system capable of supporting a vehicle anti-theftfunction and/or a driving assistance function due to anti-theftconsideration and/or driving safety consideration. However, such animplementation of the in-vehicle protection functions increases theoverall production cost and power consumption of the in-vehicle controlsystem, inevitably.

Thus, there is a need for a cost-effective and/or power-efficientin-vehicle control system which supports at least the vehicle anti-theftfunction and/or the driving assistance function.

SUMMARY

In accordance with exemplary embodiments of the present invention, anin-vehicle protection system which uses multiple processing units forlow power consumption and/or using a communication module to sendvehicle's positioning information for improved anti-theft performanceare proposed.

According to a first aspect of the present invention, an exemplaryin-vehicle protection system is disclosed. The exemplary in-vehicleprotection system includes a signal input interface, a vehicleprotection circuit, and a global navigation satellite system (GNSS)module. The signal input interface is arranged to receive at least anindication signal indicative of a status of a vehicle. The vehicleprotection circuit includes a first processing unit, a second processingunit, and a controller. The first processing unit is arranged to performpredetermined action in response to abnormality of the vehicle. Thesecond processing unit is arranged to perform predetermined action inresponse to abnormality of the vehicle, wherein computing power of thefirst processing unit is different from computing power of the secondprocessing unit. The controller is coupled to the signal inputinterface, the first processing unit, and the second processing unit,and used for receiving the indication signal, outputting the receivedindication signal to the first processing unit for further processingwhen the in-vehicle protection system operates under a first operationalstate, and outputting the received indication signal to the secondprocessing unit for further processing when the in-vehicle protectionsystem operates under a second operational state different from thefirst operational state. The GNSS module is arranged to obtainpositioning information of the vehicle. After the second processing unitdetects an abnormal status of the vehicle, the first processing unitsends at least one of the positioning information and vehicle alarminformation indicative of the abnormal status through a communicationnetwork.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, an exemplaryin-vehicle protection system is disclosed. The exemplary in-vehicleprotection system includes a signal input interface, a global navigationsatellite system (GNSS) module, and a vehicle protection circuit. Thesignal input interface is arranged to receive at least an indicationsignal indicative of a status of a vehicle. The GNSS module is arrangedto obtain positioning information of the vehicle. The vehicle protectioncircuit is coupled to the signal input interface, and arranged toperform predetermined action in response to abnormality of the vehicle.When the vehicle protection circuit detects an abnormal status of thevehicle by processing the received indication signal, the vehicleprotection circuit sends at least one of the positioning information andvehicle alarm information indicative of the abnormal status through acommunication network while an alarm message generated in response tothe abnormal status is being played by an audio output device of thevehicle, wherein the alarm message is a driving assistance message or isgenerated due to temperature exceeding a predetermined threshold.

These and other objectives of the present invention will no doubt becomeobvious to those of ordinary skill in the art after reading thefollowing detailed description of the preferred embodiment that isillustrated in the various figures and drawings.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a diagram illustrating a first exemplary embodiment of anin-vehicle protection system according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating an in-vehicle navigation systemimplemented in an in-vehicle control system under a first operationalscenario.

FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating an in-vehicle navigation systemimplemented in an in-vehicle control system under a second operationalscenario.

FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating a second exemplary embodiment of anin-vehicle protection system according to the present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Certain terms are used throughout the description and following claimsto refer to particular components. As one skilled in the art willappreciate, manufacturers may refer to a component by different names.This document does not intend to distinguish between components thatdiffer in name but not function. In the following description and in theclaims, the terms “include” and “comprise” are used in an open-endedfashion, and thus should be interpreted to mean “include, but notlimited to . . . ”. Also, the term “couple” is intended to mean eitheran indirect or direct electrical connection. Accordingly, if one deviceis coupled to another device, that connection may be through a directelectrical connection, or through an indirect electrical connection viaother devices and connections.

FIG. 1 is a diagram illustrating a first exemplary embodiment of anin-vehicle protection system according to the present invention. Theexemplary in-vehicle protection system 100 includes, but is not limitedto, a signal input interface 102 and a vehicle protection circuit 104,where the vehicle protection circuit 104 includes a controller 108, aplurality of a processing units (e.g., a first processing unit 110 and asecond processing unit 112), and an optional switch unit 106. The signalinput interface 102 is arranged to receive at least one indicationsignal indicative of a status of a vehicle. By way of example, but notlimitation, the signal input interface 102 is capable of receiving oneof the indication signals S1-S6, where the indication signals S1-S6 maycarry temperature information (e.g., engine temperature or ambienttemperature), speed information (e.g., current moving speed of thevehicle), door information (e.g., locking/unlocking state of the vehicledoor), engine information (e.g., operational state of the vehicleengine), and/or shaking information (e.g., shaking magnitude of thevehicle). More specifically, any of the indication signals S1-S6 iscapable of indicating the occurrence of a specific event where anunauthenticated person (i.e., a vehicle thief) is stealing the vehicleor an authenticated person (i.e., the vehicle owner) is driving thevehicle in an unsafe manner. In this exemplary embodiment, the signalinput interface 102 includes an analog-to-digital converter (ADC) 114and a general purpose input/output (GPIO) port 116 which may have atleast one GPIO pin. As shown in FIG. 1, the ADC 114 is arranged togenerate the indication signal S1/S2/S3/S4/S5 by sampling an analoginput S1′/S2′/S3′/S4′/S5′ associated with the instant status of thevehicle. Regarding the GPIO port 116, it is used to receive theindication signal S6 (e.g., one bit used to indicate a particular statusof the vehicle) and directly transmit the incoming indication signal S6to the following controller 108.

Each of the first processing unit 110 and the second processing unit 112is arranged to perform vehicle protection upon the vehicle. It should benoted that computing power of the first processing unit 110 is differentfrom computing power of the second processing unit 112. This alsoimplies that average power consumption of the first processing unit 110is different from average power consumption of the second processingunit 112. By way of example, but not limitation, the first processingunit 110 may be an ARM (Advanced RISC Machine)-based processor, and thesecond processing unit 112 may be an 8032-based processor. Therefore,the computing power of the first processing unit 110 is higher than thecomputing power of the second processing unit 112 due to differentprocessor architectures.

The controller 108 is coupled to the signal input interface 102, thefirst processing unit 110, and the second processing unit 112, andimplemented for receiving an indication signal (e.g., S1, S2, S3, S4,S5, or S6), outputting the received indication signal to the firstprocessing unit 110 for further processing when the in-vehicleprotection system 100 operates under a first operational state, andoutputting the received indication signal to the second processing unit112 for further processing when the in-vehicle protection system 100operates under a second operational state which is different from thefirst operational state. Thus, the current operational state of thein-vehicle protection system 100 decides which one of the firstprocessing unit 110 and the second processing unit 112 should beselected and used for processing the received indication signal. In thisexemplary embodiment, when the in-vehicle protection system 100 operatesunder the first operational state, the second processing unit 112 isdisabled while the first processing unit 110 is enabled, and when thein-vehicle protection system 100 operates under the second operationalstate, the first processing unit 110 is disabled while the secondprocessing unit 112 is enabled. In this way, the overall powerconsumption of the in-vehicle protection system 100 can be effectivelyreduced as the first processing unit 110 which is equipped with morepowerful computing capability and accordingly has more power consumptionis not always active.

By way of example, but not limitation, the in-vehicle protection system100 is regarded as entering the aforementioned first operational state(e.g., a power-on mode) when an engine of the vehicle is started to beactive, and the in-vehicle protection system 100 is regarded as enteringthe aforementioned second operational state (e.g., a standby mode) whenan engine of the vehicle is turned off to be inactive. However, in otheralternative designs, the first operational state and/or the secondoperational state may have definitions different from that mentionedabove.

As mentioned above, each of the first processing unit 110 and the secondprocessing unit 112 is capable of performing the vehicle protectionfunction. In one exemplary embodiment, each of the first processing unit110 and the second processing unit 112 is arranged to generate an alarmmessage S_(A—) 1/S_(A—) 2 or a self-protection control signal S_(c—)1/S_(c—) 2 in response to an abnormal status of the vehicle detected byprocessing the received indication signal. For example, the alarmmessage S_(A—) 1/S_(A—) 2 may be a voice message to be played by anaudio output device such as a speaker, or may be a notification messageused to notify the in-vehicle control system's main micro controllerunit (MCU) of the detected abnormal status of the vehicle. Regarding theself-protection control signal S_(c—) 1/S_(c—) 2, it may be a hardwarecontrol signal that directly controls the operation of the vehicle, ormay be a triggering signal that invokes a particular program executedfor eliminating factor(s) which may make the vehicle operate abnormally.

Regarding the optional switch unit 106, it has a first input node N1coupled to the first processing unit 110, a second input node N2 coupledto the second processing unit 112, and an output node N3. The switchunit 106 has the output node N3 coupled to the first input node N1 whenthe in-vehicle protection system 100 operates under the firstoperational state, and has the output node N3 coupled to the secondinput node N2 when the in-vehicle protection system 100 operates underthe second operational state. To put it another way, the switch unit 106outputs an output of the first processing unit 110 (which is either thealarm message S_(A—) 1 or the self-protection control signal S_(c—) 1)when the in-vehicle protection system 100 operates under the firstoperational state, and outputs an output of the second processing unit112 (which is either the alarm message S_(A—) 2 or the self-protectioncontrol signal S_(c—) 2) when the in-vehicle protection system 100operates under the second operational state. In a case where the secondprocessing unit 112 is disabled and the first processing unit 110 isenabled when the in-vehicle protection system 100 operates under thefirst operational state, and the first processing unit 110 is disabledand the second processing unit is enabled 112 when the in-vehicleprotection system 100 operates under the second operational state, theoptional switch unit 106 may be omitted due to the fact that only one ofthe first processing unit 110 and the second processing unit 112 isallowed to be active.

To reduce the production cost, the signal input interface 102, the firstprocessing unit 110, the second processing unit 112 and the controller108 may be disposed in a single chip. As the in-vehicle navigationsystem becomes more and more popular, the exemplary in-vehicleprotection system 100 of the present invention may be integrated withthe in-vehicle navigation system for further reducing the productioncost. For example, the aforementioned single chip is a system-on-a-chip(SOC) of the in-vehicle navigation system.

For better understanding of technical features of the present invention,an example of using the in-vehicle navigation system in the in-vehiclecontrol system is discussed as follows.

Please refer to FIG. 1 in conjunction with FIG. 2. FIG. 2 is a diagramillustrating an in-vehicle navigation system implemented in anin-vehicle control system under a first operational scenario. Thein-vehicle control system 200 includes, but is not limited to, a mainMCU 202, a controller area network (CAN) bus 204, and an in-vehiclenavigation system 206. The main MCU 202 communicates with the in-vehiclenavigation system 206 through the CAN bus 204. More specifically, eachof the main MCU 202 and the in-vehicle navigation system 206 is coupledto the CAN bus 204 by signal lines CAN-H and CAN-L, where signal linesCAN-H and CAN-L are used for transmitting a differential signal pair. Inaddition to the main MCU 202 and the in-vehicle navigation system 206,the in-vehicle control system 200 may include other system 203 coupledto the CAN bus 204. As a person skilled in the pertinent art can readilyunderstand function and operation of the CAN network bus 204 and thesignal lines CAN-H and CAN-L, further description is omitted here forbrevity.

The in-vehicle protection system 100 is integrated with the in-vehiclenavigation system 206. More specifically, components of the in-vehicleprotection system 100 are disposed in an SOC 208 of the in-vehiclenavigation system 206. In addition to the SOC 208, the in-vehiclenavigation system 206 has a CAN interface (CAN I/F) chip 210 used fortransmitting data to and receiving data from the CAN bus 204. It shouldbe noted that only the components pertinent to the present invention areshown in FIG. 2 for clarity and simplicity. For example, the in-vehiclenavigation system 206 or the SOC 208 may contain additional circuitcomponents to realize the desired navigation functionality.

When an engine of the vehicle is started to be active, the controller108 receives a notification S_(N) generated from a detector (not shown)and controls the in-vehicle protection system 100 to enter the firstoperational state in response to the notification S_(N). In this firstoperational scenario, the first processing unit 110 is enabled and thesecond processing unit 112 is disabled. Thus, the first processing unit110 is allowed to determine an output of the in-vehicle protectionsystem 100. That is, an output of the first processing unit 110 servesas the output of the in-vehicle protection system 100, and istransmitted to the CAN bus 204 through the CAN I/F chip 210. It shouldbe noted that, even though the optional switch unit 106 is employed inthe in-vehicle protection system 100, the switch unit 106 would alsoreceive the same notification S_(N) sent to the controller 108 and thenmake the first input node N1 coupled to the output node N3 in responseto the notification S_(N).

After the engine of the vehicle is started and becomes active, thesignal input interface 102 outputs an indication signal S_(IN) (e.g.,one of the indication signals S1-S6 as shown in FIG. 1) according to anincoming indication signal, and the controller 108 stores the receivedindication signal S_(IN) and transmits the received indication signalS_(IN) to the first processing unit 110. Upon detecting the abnormalstatus of the vehicle by processing the indication signal S_(IN), thefirst processing unit 110 generates an alarm message S_(A—) 1 or aself-protection control signal S_(c—) 1. For example, suppose that theindication signal S_(IN) is indicative of the current moving speed ofthe vehicle. When the first processing unit 110 identifies that thecurrent moving speed of the vehicle exceeds a predetermined threshold,the vehicle is regarded as having an abnormal status. Therefore, thefirst processing unit 110 may generate the alarm message S_(A—) 1, suchas a voice message, to notify the driver that the current moving speedof the vehicle is too high. Alternatively, the first processing unit 110may generate the self-protection control signal S_(c—) 1 to invoke aparticular program executed for limiting the acceleration of thevehicle. However, the above-mentioned driving assistance functionperformed by the first processing unit 110 for improving the drivingsafety is for illustrative purposes only. That is, the first processingunit 110 may be properly configured to support other driving assistancefunctions as desired.

Please refer to FIG. 1 in conjunction with FIG. 3. FIG. 3 is a diagramillustrating an in-vehicle navigation system implemented in anin-vehicle control system under a second operational scenario. The majordifference between the exemplary embodiments shown in FIG. 2 and FIG. 3is that the controller 108 receives the notification S_(N) generatedfrom a detector (not shown) and controls the in-vehicle protectionsystem 100 to enter the second operational state in response to thenotification S_(N) when the engine of the vehicle is turned off to beinactive. In this second operational scenario, the first processing unit110 is disabled and the second processing unit 112 is enabled. Thus, thesecond processing unit 112 is allowed to determine an output of thein-vehicle protection system 100. In other words, an output of thesecond processing unit 112 serves as the output of the in-vehicleprotection system 100, and is transmitted to the CAN bus 204 through theCAN I/F chip 210. It should be noted that, even though the optionalswitch unit 106 is employed in the in-vehicle protection system 100, theswitch unit 106 would also receive the same notification S_(N) sent tothe controller 108 and then make the second input node N2 coupled to theoutput node N3 in response to the notification S_(N).

By way of example, but not limitation, the main MCU 202 may also benotified by the same notification S_(N) when the engine of the vehicleis turned off. Therefore, the main MCU 202 may control a video outputdevice (not shown) of the in-vehicle control system 200 to display agraphical user interface (GUI) such that the driver can determinewhether the vehicle should enter the vehicle protection (e.g.,self-protection and/or anti-theft) mode and determine which vehicleprotection function(s) should be enabled under the vehicle protectionmode through the displayed GUI. In a case where the driver does notenable the vehicle protection mode after the engine is turned off andbecomes inactive, all components within the in-vehicle control system200 are powered off . In another case where the driver enables thevehicle protection mode after the engine is turned off and becomesinactive, all components within the SOC 208, except the signal inputinterface 102, the controller 108, and the second processing unit 112,are powered off; additionally, the main MCU 202 and other system 203 mayalso be powered off, depending upon actual requirement/consideration.

Under the second operational scenario where the vehicle enters thevehicle protection (anti-theft) mode after the engine of the vehicle isturned off, the signal input interface 102 outputs an indication signalS_(IN) (e.g., one of the indication signals S1-S6 as shown in FIG. 1)according to an incoming indication signal, the controller 108 storesthe received indication signal S_(IN) and transmits the receivedindication signal S_(IN) to the second processing unit 112. Upondetecting the abnormal status of the vehicle by processing theindication signal S_(IN), the second processing unit 112 generates analarm message S_(A—) 2 or a self-protection control signal S_(c—) 2.

For example, the indication signal S_(IN) may be indicative of thecurrent ambient temperature of the vehicle. When the second processingunit 112 detects that the current ambient temperature of the vehicleexceeds a predetermined threshold, implying that the vehicle itself orsomething nearby is on fire, the vehicle is regarded as having anabnormal status. Thus, the second processing unit 112 may generate thealarm message S_(A—) 2 which acts as a fire alarm when played by anaudio output device of the vehicle. The indication signal S_(IN) may beindicative of the current status of the door lock, the steering wheel,or the automatic/manual transmission. When the second processing unit112 detects that the current status of the door lock, the steeringwheel, or the automatic/manual transmission is changed when the engineis inactive, implying that an unauthenticated person (i.e., a vehiclethief) is trying to use the protected vehicle, the vehicle is regardedas having an abnormal status. Therefore, the second processing unit 112may generate the alarm message S_(A—) 2 which acts as an alarm sirenwhen played by an audio output device of the vehicle. Moreover, when avehicle theft event is identified by the second processing unit 112, thesecond processing unit 112 may also generate the self-protection controlsignal S_(c—) 2 to invoke a particular program executed fordisabling/locking all or part of systems/components related to startingthe engine of the vehicle and displaying a GUI for receiving a passwordused to enable/unlock any disabled/locked system/component related tostarting the engine of the vehicle. That is, after the vehicle theftevent is identified by the second processing unit 112, the engine of thevehicle is protected from being started unless the correct password isentered and verified.

In one alternative design, the second processing unit 112 shown in FIG.3 may notify the main MCU 202 through the CAN bus 204 when detecting theabnormal status of the vehicle under a condition where the engine of thevehicle stays in an inactive state or has an abnormal transition fromthe inactive state to an active state. For example, the secondprocessing unit 112 may generate the alarm message S_(A—) 2 to informthe main MCU 202 of the detected vehicle's abnormal status. Therefore,when notified by the second processing unit 112, the main MCU 202 takesaction to deal with the vehicle's abnormal status.

In another alternative design, the second processing unit 112 shown inFIG. 3 may wake up the standby components of the in-vehicle navigationsystem 206 or in-vehicle control system 200 when detecting the abnormalstatus of the vehicle under a condition where the engine of the vehiclestays in an inactive state or has an abnormal transition from theinactive state to an active state. For example, the second processingunit 112 may generate the alarm message S_(A—) 2 to inform the main MCU202 of the detected vehicle's abnormal status. Therefore, when notifiedby the second processing unit 112, the main MCU 202 wakes up standbycomponents of the in-vehicle navigation system 206 or in-vehicle controlsystem 200. As a result, the in-vehicle protection system 100 would beswitched from the second operational state to the first operationalstate, and the first processing circuit 110 is therefore enabled fortaking action to deal with the vehicle's abnormal status.

The in-vehicle protection system of the present invention may haveadditional circuit component(s) included therein to offer advancedprotection for the vehicle. Please refer to FIG. 4, which is a diagramillustrating a second exemplary embodiment of an in-vehicle protectionsystem according to the present invention. The exemplary in-vehicleprotection system 400 includes, but is not limited to, a signal inputinterface 402, a vehicle protection circuit 404, a global navigationsatellite system (GNSS) module 406, and a communication module 408.

For clarity and simplicity, the following assumes that the communicationmodule 408 may be implemented using a mobile phone module. Hence, theterms “communication module” and “mobile phone module” may beinterchangeable hereinafter. However, this is for illustrative purposesonly, and is not meant to be a limitation of the present invention. Inpractice, the communication module 408 may be arranged to communicatewith a communication network 409 complying with one of a global systemfor mobile communications (GSM) standard, a Wireless Fidelity (WiFi)standard, a Bluetooth (BT) standard, a Near Field Communication (NFC)standard, a Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) standard, a Long-Term Evolution(LTE) standard, and a Long-Term Evolution-Advanced (LTE-Advanced)standard.

The signal input interface 402 is arranged to output at least oneindication signal S_(IN)′ indicative of a status of the vehicleaccording to an incoming indication signal. For example, the signalinput interface 402 maybe realized using the signal input interface 102shown in FIG. 1, and the indication signal S_(IN)′ may be one of theindication signals S1-S6 shown in FIG. 1. Thus, the indication signalS_(IN)′ may carry temperature information (e.g., engine temperature orambient temperature), speed information (e.g., current moving speed ofthe vehicle), door information (e.g., locking/unlocking state of thevehicle door), engine information (e.g., operational state of thevehicle engine), or shaking information (e.g., shaking magnitude of thevehicle). The vehicle protection circuit 404 is coupled to the signalinput interface 402 and arranged to perform vehicle protection upon thevehicle according to the received indication signal S_(IN)′. The GNSSmodule 406 is arranged to obtain positioning information DATA_P of thevehicle. For example, the GNSS module 406 may be a global positioningsystem (GPS) receiver capable of deriving vehicle's positioninginformation DATA_P from signals received from satellites. The mobilephone module 408 is arranged to communicate with a communication network409. For example, the mobile phone module 408 maybe a cellular phoneapparatus complying with the global system for mobile communications(GSM) standard. When the vehicle protection circuit 404 detects anabnormal status of the vehicle by processing the received indicationsignal S_(IN)′, the vehicle protection circuit 404 performs vehicleprotection upon the vehicle by controlling the mobile phone module 408to send the positioning information DATA_P through one or morepredetermined phone numbers. For example, the abnormal status of thevehicle is detected by the vehicle protection circuit 404 under acondition where the engine of the vehicle stays in an inactive state orhas an abnormal transition from the inactive state to an active state.In a case where the mobile phone module 408 is a GSM cellular phoneapparatus, the mobile phone module 408 is capable of sending a shortmessage, having at least the positioning information DATA_P embeddedtherein, to one or more predetermined phone numbers. For example, apredetermined phone number may be a phone number of the owner of thevehicle or a phone number of a police station. In this way, the instantlocation of the stolen vehicle can be identified by means of thepositioning information DATA_P which may be updated periodically by theGNSS module 406.

Alternatively, in addition to the positioning information DATA_Pmentioned above, the mobile phone module 408 maybe controlled by thevehicle protection circuit 404 to send vehicle alarm information IAindicative of an abnormal status of the vehicle through one or morepredetermined phone numbers when the vehicle protection circuit 404detects the abnormal status of the vehicle by processing the receivedindication signal S_(IN)′. For example, while an alarm message (e.g., avoice message, a fire alarm, or an alarm siren) is being played by anaudio output device (e.g., a speaker) of the vehicle for notifying thevehicle's abnormal status, the mobile phone module 408 may send thepositioning information DATA_P and/or the vehicle alarm information IAto the same predetermined phone number(s) or different predeterminedphone number(s). When the vehicle is in the far distance from anauthenticated person (i.e., the vehicle owner) or the playback durationof the alarm message is too short, the alarm message played by thevehicle's audio output device may fail to bring the vehicle's abnormalstatus to the authenticated person's notice. However, with the help ofthe mobile phone module 408, the vehicle alarm information IA may betransmitted through a phone number of the authenticated person tothereby notify the authenticated person of the abnormal status of thevehicle in time. Briefly summarized, when the vehicle protection circuit404 detects an abnormal status of the vehicle by processing the receivedindication signal S_(IN)′, the mobile phone module 408 sends at leastone of the positioning information DATA_P and the vehicle alarminformation IA through at least one predetermined phone number, therebyimproving the anti-theft function greatly.

To reduce the production cost, at least the signal input interface 402and the vehicle protection circuit 404 maybe disposed in a single chip.In addition, as the in-vehicle navigation system becomes more and morepopular, the signal input interface 402 and the vehicle protectioncircuit 404 may be integrated with the in-vehicle navigation system forfurther reducing the production cost. For example, the signal inputinterface 402 and the vehicle protection circuit 404 are integratedwithin an SOC of the in-vehicle navigation system.

Moreover, the vehicle protection circuit 404 may have the circuitarchitecture of the vehicle protection circuit 104 in FIG. 1 implementedtherein. Thus, after the second processing unit 112 detects the abnormalstatus of the vehicle, the first processing unit 110 is enabled such thesecond processing unit 112 hands over the control to the firstprocessing unit 110. Next, the first processing unit 110 performsvehicle protection upon the vehicle by controlling the mobile phonemodule 408 to send the positioning information DATA_P through thepredetermined phone number. In addition, as the vehicle protectioncircuit 404 may have the circuit architecture of the vehicle protectioncircuit 104 in FIG. 1 implemented therein, the vehicle protectioncircuit 404 may operate according to the exemplary configurations shownin FIG. 2 and FIG. 3. Further description is omitted here for brevity.

Please note that the term “in-vehicle” mentioned above is not meant tolimit the scope of the present invention to car applications. That is,any transportation which uses a protection system having the proposedarchitecture should be regarded as having the proposed in-vehicleprotection system implemented therein.

Those skilled in the art will readily observe that numerousmodifications and alterations of the device and method may be made whileretaining the teachings of the invention. Accordingly, the abovedisclosure should be construed as limited only by the metes and boundsof the appended claims.

What is claimed is:
 1. An in-vehicle protection system, comprising: asignal input interface, arranged to receive at least an indicationsignal indicative of a status of a vehicle; a vehicle protectioncircuit, comprising: a first processing unit, arranged to performpredetermined action in response to abnormality of the vehicle; a secondprocessing unit, arranged to perform predetermined action in response toabnormality of the vehicle, wherein computing power of the firstprocessing unit is different from computing power of the secondprocessing unit; and a controller, coupled to the signal inputinterface, the first processing unit, and the second processing unit,for receiving the indication signal, outputting the received indicationsignal to the first processing unit for further processing when thein-vehicle protection system operates under a first operational state,and outputting the received indication signal to the second processingunit for further processing when the in-vehicle protection systemoperates under a second operational state different from the firstoperational state; and a global navigation satellite system (GNSS)module, arranged to obtain positioning information of the vehicle;wherein after the second processing unit detects an abnormal status ofthe vehicle, the first processing unit sends at least one of thepositioning information and vehicle alarm information indicative of theabnormal status through a communication network.
 2. The in-vehicleprotection system of claim 1, wherein when the in-vehicle protectionsystem operates under the first operational state, the second processingunit is disabled while the first processing unit is enabled; and whenthe in-vehicle protection system operates under the second operationalstate, the first processing unit is disabled while the second processingunit is enabled.
 3. The in-vehicle protection system of claim 1, whereinthe in-vehicle protection system enters the first operational state whenan engine of the vehicle is started to be active.
 4. The in-vehicleprotection system of claim 3, wherein the computing power of the firstprocessing unit is higher than the computing power of the secondprocessing unit.
 5. The in-vehicle protection system of claim 1, whereinthe in-vehicle protection system enters the second operational statewhen an engine of the vehicle is turned off to be inactive.
 6. Thein-vehicle protection system of claim 5, wherein the computing power ofthe first processing unit is higher than the computing power of thesecond processing unit.
 7. The in-vehicle protection system of claim 1,wherein when the second processing unit detects the abnormal status ofthe vehicle by processing the indication signal under a condition wherethe engine of the vehicle stays in an inactive state or has an abnormaltransition from the inactive state to an active state, the in-vehicleprotection system is switched from the second operational state to thefirst operational state such that the first processing unit is enabledto deal with the abnormal status of the vehicle.
 8. The in-vehicleprotection system of claim 1, further comprising: a communicationmodule, arranged to communicate with the communication network; whereinthe first processing unit controls the communication module to send atleast one of the positioning information and the vehicle alarminformation through the communication network.
 9. The in-vehicleprotection system of claim 1, wherein the communication network complieswith one of a global system for mobile communications (GSM) standard, aWireless Fidelity (WiFi) standard, a Bluetooth (BT) standard, a NearField Communication (NFC) standard, a Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE)standard, a Long-Term Evolution (LTE) standard, and a Long-TermEvolution-Advanced (LTE-Advanced) standard.
 10. The in-vehicleprotection system of claim 1, wherein the signal input interface and thevehicle protection circuit are disposed in a system-on-a-chip (SOC) ofan in-vehicle navigation system.
 11. The in-vehicle protection system ofclaim 1, wherein each of the first processing unit and the secondprocessing unit is arranged to generate an alarm message or aself-protection control signal in response to the abnormal status of thevehicle detected by processing the received indication signal.
 12. Thein-vehicle protection system of claim 1, wherein the vehicle protectioncircuit further comprises: a switch unit, having a first input nodecoupled to the first processing unit, a second input node coupled to thesecond processing unit, and a output node; wherein the switch unit hasthe output node coupled to the first input node when the in-vehicleprotection system operates under the first operational state, and hasthe output node coupled to the second input node when the in-vehicleprotection system operates under the second operational state.
 13. Thein-vehicle protection system of claim 1, wherein the signal inputinterface comprises an analog-to-digital converter (ADC) arranged togenerate the indication signal by sampling an analog input associatedwith the status of the vehicle.
 14. The in-vehicle protection system ofclaim 1, wherein the signal input interface comprises a general purposeinput/output (GPIO) port arranged to receive the indication signal anddirectly transmit the indication signal to the controller.
 15. Anin-vehicle protection system, comprising: a signal input interface,arranged to receive at least an indication signal indicative of a statusof a vehicle; a global navigation satellite system (GNSS) module,arranged to obtain positioning information of the vehicle; and a vehicleprotection circuit, coupled to the signal input interface and arrangedto perform predetermined action in response to abnormality of thevehicle; wherein when the vehicle protection circuit detects an abnormalstatus of the vehicle by processing the received indication signal, thevehicle protection circuit sends at least one of the positioninginformation and vehicle alarm information indicative of the abnormalstatus through a communication network while an alarm message generatedin response to the abnormal status is being played by an audio outputdevice of the vehicle, wherein the alarm message is a driving assistancemessage or is generated due to temperature exceeding a predeterminedthreshold.
 16. The in-vehicle protection system of claim 15, wherein thesignal input interface and the vehicle protection circuit are disposedin a system-on-a-chip (SOC) of an in-vehicle navigation system.
 17. Thein-vehicle protection system of claim 15, wherein the abnormal status ofthe vehicle is detected by the vehicle protection circuit under acondition where the engine of the vehicle stays in an inactive state orhas an abnormal transition from the inactive state to an active state.18. The in-vehicle protection system of claim 15, further comprising: acommunication module, arranged to communicate with the communicationnetwork; wherein the vehicle protection circuit controls thecommunication module to send at least one of the positioning informationand the vehicle alarm information through the communication network. 19.The in-vehicle protection system of claim 15, wherein the communicationnetwork complies with one of a global system for mobile communications(GSM) standard, a Wireless Fidelity (WiFi) standard, a Bluetooth (BT)standard, a Near Field Communication (NFC) standard, a Bluetooth LowEnergy (BLE) standard, a Long-Term Evolution (LTE) standard, and aLong-Term Evolution-Advanced (LTE-Advanced) standard.